Raid Frees American

Special forces hit at midnight

DOHA, Qatar — In a daring midnight mission on Wednesday, U.S. Special Operations forces rescued Pfc. Jessica Lynch of the Army from Nasiriya, Iraq, where she had been held captive since March 23.

Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., was found in the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriya, which also was being used as an Iraqi military facility, a Central Command official said. She was one of 15 members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Co., which was attacked by Iraqi forces after taking a wrong turn off a highway in southern-central Iraq as U.S. troops advanced toward Nasiriya on the first Sunday of the Iraqi war.

"Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq," Brig. Gen Vince Brooks, Central Command's deputy director of operations, said early Wednesday. "The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area."

Brooks gave no further details.

The rescue mission was launched at about midnight Iraqi time. It had been planned for several days after U.S. intelligence learned where Lynch was being held. The operation was kept secret from all but a handful of top Central Command officers and members of the special forces unit that conducted the raid, the official said.

The operation was recorded on videotape by a member of the rescue team, and the tape may be shown later Wednesday, the official added.

Military officials said shortly after the ambush that Lynch's convoy had come under attack from two Iraqi T-55 tanks and a company-size unit of foot soldiers believed to be among the Fedayeen irregulars, not Iraqi army troops, which mounted attacks on advancing allied troops beginning that weekend.

Until Wednesday night, Lynch had been listed as missing in action because her status and location within Iraq were said to be unknown. She was not among the seven U.S. soldiers--including five from the 507th--formally listed as prisoners of war. The five terrified members of the maintenance unit were shown on Iraqi television and then on the Arab satellite network al-Jazeera television shortly after their capture.

Seven other members of the company still are listed as missing in action. Two have been confirmed as dead.